Board of Directors

Ron Elwell has been a Partner in Bessemer Venture Partners (BVP), a firm that specializes in the wireless sector, since 2003. He managed BVP’s investment in Advanced Recognition Technologies by serving as Chairman of the Board until the company was acquired. He currently serves on the Board of GoTV, another company in which BVP holds an interest.

Prior to joining BVP, Mr. Elwell was CEO of Octave Communications, a maker of teleconferencing equipment in which BVP invested. Prior to that, he was President of the Enterprise Telephony Group at Lernout & Hauspie. And prior to that, he held a number of executive positions at Dictaphone. In all, Mr. Elwell brings over 20 years of industry experience to the Board of WAY Systems.

Fred Gumbel brings to WAY Systems over 30 years of experience in the financial services industry. He has served as President of the EDS Electronic Commerce Strategic Business Unit, was Founder, Chairman, President, and CEO of Vital Processing Services, and CEO of Payment Insight. In addition, Mr. Gumbel has held senior executive positions with Citicorp and First Bank System. 

Mr. Gumbel earned his Bachelors of Science in Business Administration from Western Kentucky University and has served in the United States Army.

Bill Melton has been an entrepreneur and investor in the high-tech industry for over 30 years. In 1981 he founded VeriFone, the transaction automation company that made credit authorization terminals ubiquitous. From 1991 to 1999, Mr. Melton was an early investor in, and board member of America Online. Additionally, Mr. Melton was the initial funder of Transaction Network Systems (TNS), founder and CEO of CyberCash, and an initial funder of other high-tech companies including Prio, which was sold to Infospace, and Maxager Technology.

Today, Mr. Melton is an investor in, and board member of several early-stage venture capital companies. Mr. Melton holds a master's degree in Asian Studies and Chinese philosophy.

Michael Rovner is a Partner at Texas-based Austin Ventures. Prior to joining Austin Ventures, he led business development and mergers and acquisitions for Mission Critical Software, which went public in 1999 and later merged with NetIQ. Earlier in his career, Mr. Rovner served as a management consultant to FedEx Global Logistics and Electronic Commerce. Prior to that he held executive positions with Stanford Technology Group (acquired by Informix) and Empart Technology (acquired by ARI Network Services), where he was also a founder.